Tuesday, 30 September 2014

HODGKISS AWARD WINNING
COLLABORATION BRINGS WORLD PREMIERE TO ROYAL EXCHANGE

CROCODILES

By Lee Mattinson

Directed by Ng Choon Ping and designed by Sarah Beaton

The Studio at
the Royal Exchange Theatre

St Ann’s Square, Manchester

Wednesday 1 October – Saturday 18 October

PRESS NIGHT:
Friday 3 October at 7.30pm

Lee Mattinson’s dark new play receives its world premiere at the Royal Exchange,
running from Wednesday 1 October
to Saturday 18 October.

A ferocious Northern fable, it unveils a world where strange
things are normal, and normal things are very strange.

In a sleepy seaside town, Cornelia Glass is busy spinning
yarn.Witches are burning in the town
centre. Crocodiles lurk in the shallows. Boys who go to the big city are
skinned alive by tramps.

The production is directed by Ng Choon Ping who was the winner of the inaugural RoyalExchange Theatre Hodgkiss Award. This new award is the only scheme of its kind
in the north that celebrates the unique collaboration between a writer and
director. It offers a theatre
maker of outstanding promise the chance to direct a new piece of work – by a
writer of their choice – in a production fully supported by the Royal Exchange
Theatre.

The cast includes James
Atherton (best known for his TV role as Will Savage in HOLLYOAKS); Sarah Gordy (whose TV credits include
playing Pamela Holland in two series of UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS); Melanie Hill (whose recent TV work
includes WATERLOO ROAD and who is best known as Avaline in BBC comedy BREAD)
and Kevin Wathen (whose recent
theatre work includes a West End production of BILLY ELLIOT and whose TV
credits include INSPECTOR GEORGE GENTLY).

The production is designed by Sarah Beaton and will feature video projections designed by Gillian Tan.The creative team is completed by Dominic Kennedy (sound) and Matthew
Haskins (lighting).

JIM Murphy, Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, who has just got back from campaigning for a 'Better Together' Union in the Scottish referendum was confronted by hecklers during his visit to Middleton to help Liz McInnes the Labour candidate. Mr. Murphy was told to 'go back to Scotland', but he said that when he was in Scotland they told him to go to England he said 'I can't win'.

Murphy said:'People are angry and frustrated. The world has changed and a lot of people didn't have a say on that change. Traditional Labour voters have been affected. But a vote for Ukip is vote for the Tories and the same old politics.'

Liz McInnes, a trade unionist and President of Oldham Trade Union Council, has said that she isn't worried by Ukip and says she wants to keep the seat in honour of Jim Dobbin's memory. She was on her soapbox in Middleton Gardens, along with Mr. Muphy.
She says: 'I want to make a difference. I worked for the NHS, I'm not a professional politician.'

Labour seems to be playing on the NHS as an issue in this election.

Mr. Murphy said: 'If people don’t fancy the Tories, how can they flirt with Ukip? People here are good, common sense people - they don’t want anything to do with Ukip’s ideology. This by-election is about the issues facing people - not Ukip. They’re super-charged Tories.'

SCOTLAND is changing dramatically – and it will drag the rest of the UK along with it, one way or another. The outcome of the Scottish referendum is that Britain will have changed, and changed quite utterly.

As a northern Englishman who spends some time in Scotland, it’s impossible not to be amazed by the political ferment north of the border. Scotland is buzzing with ideas and radical thinking, and most of that – all of it to be honest – is coming from the ‘yes’ campaigners.

In contrast, the ‘Better Together’ parties have relied on fear rather than any positive argument for Scotland remaining part of a reformed United Kingdom. The panic reaction of the last few days are more about politicians saving their skins than any meaningful commitment to change. But even then, it’s just more of the same 'we know what's good for you' politics.

Scotland will make its mind up this week. But what of radicals and democrats in England, and for that matter Wales: should we welcome an independent Scotland or see it as a slightly discourteous goodbye, consigning us to decades of Tory rule?

There’s no doubt that Scotland leaving the UK would result in a boost to the Tories, giving them an ill deserved boostal based on current arrangements. Wales has a degree of protection through its own (Labour-administered) Welsh Government and further powers are likely to be devolved.

The huge democratic deficit is in the English regions, particularly the North and Midlands which have remained staunchly anti-Tory.

An independent Scotland could, you may argue, mean that the Tory-voting South will consign the Labour-inclined North and Midlands to permanent political exclusion. That’s the conventional ‘Labourist’ view which sees politics as being about seats and 'majorities' in Westminster.

But there is a broader issue for the radical democratic left. Scottish independence will send shock waves through the British political system resulting in consequences which we can only speculate upon. It would potentially open the way for an independent Wales – a nation which, if anything, is even more anti-Tory than Scotland. It would certainly strengthen the position of Plaid Cymru, whose politics are way to the left of Labour's.

A re-constituted Labour/Plaid coalition government which edges towards independence based on radical left of centre politics would further isolate England. And England is the big issue. It is not comparable in size or power to either Scotland or Wales. It has a population of over 53 million, compared to Scotland’s 5.3m and Wales’ 3.1m.

Its economic and political power, increasingly concentrated in the south-east, is enormous. It’s laughable when the pro-English parliament lobby complains about ‘poor little England’ being bossed around by the horrid Scots and Welsh. We’ve been bossing them around – and much of the rest of the world – for centuries.

Perhaps we are seeing the beginning of the end of John Bull’s Great Britain. This is something that radical socialists, be they English, Welsh or Scots, should welcome.

A ‘yes’ vote for Scottish independence would have forced the pace of change south of the border. We are already seeing it start to happen. The current centralised governance, with power concentrated on London and the South-East, would not continue indefinitely. Change will come, and quicker than we imagined only a few months ago.

And that change, potentially, could lead to a democratic, federal British Isles in which not only England, Wales and Northern Ireland form part, but possibly Scotland and – who knows? - the Irish Republic. And London would no longer rule the roost.

Fundamental change must come to England, based on directly-elected regional assembles and a reformed and re-energised local government. The two are closely related and the last three decades have seen the withering of local democracy across the UK.

Monday, 29 September 2014

NIGEL Farage, according to The Spectator journalist Isabel Hardman, last Thursday conceded:‘I think it’s too big a mountain to climb in that short a space of time, and I think the Labour party is saying that because they’ve got a very divided local party, they’re not happy with the candidate, they can’t get anyone out to canvass, and when they put the coaches on to go from the hall in Manchester to the office in Heywood, only 23 people got on one… they were expecting hundreds. So I think that Labour have talked it up to try to scare their own party machine into getting… I could be wrong, but the one thing about Heywood that is different is in South Shields there were 23,000 postal votes, in Heywood and Middleton it’s about nine three or nine four I think it is, and that obviously makes a fundamental difference to our chances.'

Ms. Hardman had earlier reported:'I hear that there is a fierce debate going on in Ukip between those who want to divert resources from Clacton to Heywood in order to give the fight a real go, and those who think it best to focus efforts on Carswell’s seat. Currently Heywood is not getting anything like the attention Clacton is, and party high command has not been convinced that it’s worth changing things. They also claim there is more of an effort in Clacton from the Tories than Carswell’s former party lets on, and don’t want to take anything for granted.'

Could it be that the Labour Party is trying to scare their supporters to turn out as Farage is saying? Or is there a serious threat to the Labour Party candidate?

I spoke to a member of the Green Party in Rochdale over the weekend, and he'd just been out on a stall in Heywood, he told me that the feeling in Heywood among the public was one of general apathy. He suggested that the Labour candidate was 'thick with Danczuk', and that some members and supporters of the Labour Party in Heywood were disillusioned. He further claimed that Jim Dobbin had regarded Danczuk as a rather poor MP.

It ought to be remembered that some people were either excluded or defected from the Labour Party some years ago in around 2010 because of allegations about Mr. Danczuk's behaviour on a holiday in Alicante, Spain. At that time there was an acrimonious dispute within the local Labour Party which was both personal and political, and some of those people who left Labour then are now believed to have joined the Green Party. Hence, it is understandable that they may be critical of Simon Danczuk.

Meanwhile, Simon Danczuk in an article in the Rochdale Observer on Saturday the 13th, September launched an attack on the number of asylum seekers coming to Rochdale. A report had just stated that Greater Manchester is handling one in six of all Britain's asylum seekers, and Simon Danczuk MP for Rocdale told The Observer:'This is a cause for concern. What we need is for Rochdale to take fewer asylum seekers, not more.'

Clearly Mr. Danczuk is determined to take the ground of public concern over asylum seekers before Ukip occupies it.

Saturday, 27 September 2014

TOWN hall bosses throughout Greater Manchester are facing a ‘ticking timebomb’ of mounting claims from people struck down with conditions linked to deadly asbestos.

Manchester council paid out almost £600,000 in damages to victims in the last year alone, an M.E.N. investigation has found.
The 2013/14 claims had to be settled using taxpayers’ money, rather than through insurance as the cases predated the 1980s when the council did not have asbestos cover.
Figures obtained under Freedom of Information requests reveal victims of asbestos-related diseases have won a total of £1.8m in damages from councils in Greater Manchester in recent years.
Campaigners believe payments are likely to soar over the coming decade as more people fall ill and die after being exposed to the material.

Mesothelioma in numbers

1,500

Number of mesothelioma deaths in GM in last 30 years

90

Number of deaths in 2011

£1.8m

What our councils have paid out in damages

The compensation claims came from victims who breathed in asbestos fibres in buildings like schools, offices and community centres.
It can cause mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer, which attacks the lining of organs and is always fatal.
The number of people killed by the disease has soared by 500 per cent in the last 30 years – with new cases expected to peak in 2020.
The number of people killed by the asbestos-related cancer has soared by 500 per cent between 1982 and 2011.
Figures, released by the Health and Safety Executive, show that 90 people died of mesothelioma in Greater Manchester in 2011 – compared to 15 in 1982.
Deaths from the asbestos-related cancer, which is always fatal, peaked at 100 in 2010, according to the statistics.
Graham Dring, coordinator of Greater Manchester Asbestos Victims Support Group, said: “Compensation payouts will probably rise as new mesothelioma cases continue to increase.
“The dangers of asbestos have been known about for decades but too often ignored.
“The epidemic we see now was a man-made disaster and avoidable. Profits were put before the health and safety of working men and women who are the ones paying the price for employer and political negligence.”

Mesothelioma in figures

700: Number of schools which still contain asbestos

£150k: Amount Bury council paid to a fireman exposed to asbestos

500%: Rise in cases since 1982

At least 1,600 of the region’s local authority buildings – including 700 schools – still contain asbestos, which was widely-used in the construction industry from the 1950s until the 1990s.
It is thought the majority of asbestos victims to date will have been construction workers - although Mr Dring said he expected professions like teachers, office workers and caretakers to be increasingly affected in the future.
Between them, the region’s councils have spent millions managing asbestos over the last five years – including carrying out repair work on buildings and surveys in schools.
But Mr Dring said: “The risks will continue if the dangers of asbestos in our public buildings is not taken seriously."In an ideal world, asbestos should be stripped from all public buildings, especially schools, where there is risk of children being exposed. In an era of financial restraints, this may not be realistic in the short term.“However, we think local authorities should have a programme and targets for removing asbestos where and when they can.”
The Asbestos Victims Support Groups Forum UK organised a lobby at this week’s Labour conference in Manchester - calling for guaranteed research funding, paid for by a levy on insurers and matched by Government funding, to find a cure for mesothelioma.
They are also demanding full compensation for victims who cannot find an employer or insurer under the ‘Diffuse Mesothelioma Payments Scheme’ - rather than the current 80 per cent paid out.

My husband was pleased to see the town hall accept blame before he died

A retired heating engineer who contracted mesothelioma through work found out he had won damages from Manchester council just three weeks before he died.
William Berisford was exposed to asbestos while fitting and repairing boilers during his 30 years at the town hall’s direct works department.
He was diagnosed with mesothelioma in May last year and doctors at Wythenshawe Hospital gave him 12 months to live.
The 75-year-old survived for only eight months - just long enough to see the council agree to pay him compensation.
His widow Joan Berisford, from Heald Green, Stockport, described the sum as ‘reasonable’ and said her husband was pleased to see the town hall accept blame before he died.But she added his death had left her angry because their retirement together had been ‘snatched away’.
Mrs Berisford said: “He could have had another 10 years. We were at the stage where we were going on holiday often and going out often, just generally enjoying our retirement. That has been snatched away from us now.”
Grandmother-of-two Mrs Berisford, 74, told how the cancer diagnosis ‘devastated’ the couple, who would have been married 55 years this year.
She added: “That first day we found out we both cried all day. But after that, Bill took it on the chin.
“The last two to three months were awful. He was on oxygen and every time he stood up he fell over. In the end, we were just glad to see him not suffer any more.” Mrs Berisford said she had ‘strong views’ about asbestos and believed it should be stripped from public buildings, especially schools, to prevent more people suffering like her husband did.
Pauline Chandler, a specialist in asbestos disease cases at Manchester law firm Slater & Gordon, which represented Mrs Berisford, said: “We have successfully concluded a number of cases against the council for asbestos-related claims, many of them like Mrs Berisford’s are sadly fatal.
“The widespread use of asbestos, in and on council premises in the 1950s right through to the 1980s, mean we expect to see even more people coming forward with claims.
"It is hoped the council faces up to its responsibilities regarding such cases and settles them as quickly as possible for the sake of those affected.”

Mesothelioma: Deaths in 2011

WIGAN: 16

TAMESIDE: 15

STOCKPORT: 14

TRAFFORD: 12

MANCHESTER: 9

BOLTON: 7

BURY: 7

MANCHESTER: 9

OLDHAM: 5

ROCHDALE: 4

SALFORD: 1

Total: 90

How much has been paid to victims so far

Bolton council: £440,000 for exposure to asbestos dating back to 1960.Bury council: £150,000 in 2013 to a fireman exposed to asbestos between 1958 and 1974.Salford council: £118,000 in compensation for exposure going back to 1959.Tameside council: £165,000 on two claims – one in 2012 and one in 2014.Trafford council: £50,000 in 2013/2014 following a claim of exposure to asbestos at a community centre in Sale around 1949.Wigan council: The council and its insurers paid out £295,000 since 2001 on six claims relating to exposure between the 1950s and 1980s in local authority offices, schools and sites.
Oldham, Rochdale and Stockport councils have not paid any damages relating to asbestos-related diseases.

Friday, 26 September 2014

LABOUR in Rotherham has condemned the remarks of the Ukip candidate, Nathan Garbutt, as an 'unfounded smears'. Mr Garbutt had accused Labour of protecting 'paedophiles in Rotherham' and of homophobia.

Garbutt in a statement in PinkNews.co.uk wrote;'I have been called homophoic [sic] by the Labour party simply for being part of UKIP, imagine how twisted a mindset has to be to accuse gay man of homophobia? The good news is the public are seeing past Labour lies and I am delighted to be the first UKIP candidate to oppose Yvette Cooper in my home town at next years general election.'

Garbutt also wrote:'...according to the Sun, senior officials in the Labour Party have been left ‘stunned’ by the recent surge in the popularity of UKIP.The decision to hold our annual gathering in Doncaster is a direct challenge to Ed Miliband on his home turf, and Labour should be worried the public are angry at Labours [sic] protection of paedophiles in Rotherham.'

In Rochdale it is the Labour Party brothers and sisters who issue the smears against each other. Last weekend, at a trade union meeting another unsupported story was circulated suggesting that the former leader of the Rochdale Council, Colin Lambert, had fallen-out with Jim Dobbin, MP for Heywood and Middleton, shortly before Jim died. The editor of Northern Voices spoke to Mr Dobbin shortly before his death earlier this month and there was no suggestion that there was any animosity between him and Colin Lambert. After this story was put out last weekend we have approached others both inside the Labour Party and beyond, and can find no evidence to support it.

It is yet more evidence of what Private Eye has called the fratricide that exists between the members of the constituency of Heywood and Middleton, and the Simon Danczuk's neighboring constituency of Rochdale. In the Rochdale Labour Party there is a kind of never ending in-house smear campaign. It's a right old Punch and Judy show up here.

TONIGHT's the night for Simon Danczuk MP for Rochdale! Will he or won't he get re-selected or adopted again at a special meeting tonight as the candidate for Rochdale? Rumour is that he will be re-adopted; what with all the publicity and press coverage he got over Cyril Smith scandal, and especially now that he is fast recreating himself as the principle pundit on child abuse in all the world.

He's got an eye like a shithouse rat for publicity, or even, dare one say it? a Cyril Smith.

Only this week he has turned on his leader Ed Milibore, and declared that the Labour leader has been far too dilatory in tackling the constitutional issues raised by the Scottish referendum.

Mr. Danczuk told the media:'I'm surprised the Labour leadership didn't steel the march on the Conservatives and it would have been helpful to have come out early, straight after the Scottish referendum results, and set out proposals for England. We have now allowed the Conservatives to set the terms of the debate and David Cameron is desparately trying to control the debate as to whether English MPs can vote on English legistlation. I genuinely agree there should not be Scottish MPs voting on English legislation.'

The problem then arises as if a Labour government would ever be able to get legislation through the House of Commons, without its Scottish MPs?

Simon Danczuk & Matt Baker

Book reading: Smile for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith

Details

There are few debut books that make quite the political impact of Smile for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith.
Hailed by Michael Crick as 'the best political book of 2014', it was serialised in The Daily Mail with four front pages and subsequently saw Greater Manchester Police launch a criminal investigation into whether child abuse was covered up.
Tonight’s reading with authors Simon Danczuk MP and Matt Baker will explain how they came to write the book and include new material from a forthcoming paperback edition.

Thursday, 25 September 2014

An evening celebrating the anti-war activists of 1914-1918 with pictures,poetry, song and talks.

Featuring *Chloe Mason* - the great granddaughter of socialist, pacifist,suffragist and second-hand clothes dealer Alice Wheeldon, an opponent ofWorld War 1, imprisoned in 1917 for the alleged attempted murder of LloydGeorge, who will be joiningus to talk about the campaign to clear Alice's name, as well as that ofAlice's daughter Winnie and son-in-law Alfred Mason (who were convictedalongside her).

THE next phase of the strikes to break the ConDem pay freeze will start in under 3 weeks’ time.

The decision of yesterday’s PCS NEC ensures that up to a million and half public sector workers from Unison, PCS, Unite, GMB, UCU and NIPSA will be striking in 3 consecutive days of action. The health unions had alreadydecided to strike for four hours on October 13. The day after, council workers and FE lecturers will be out followed by civil servants on October 15.

The National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) gives full support to these workers, which can be a step up from the million-strong July 10 strike. We call on everyone to support the action – visit the picket lines and join in any strike rallies. But at the end of that week on Saturday October 18, get on the TUC’s ‘Britain Needs a Pay Rise’ demonstration in London.

AN Age of the Enlightenment film is to be première on Tuesday, September 30th, at Long Street Methodist Church in Middleton. It has sprung from an idea by local film-maker Anthony Dolan, and is funded with a grant of £1,975,800 from the local Council and the Edgar Wood and Middleton Townscape Initiative.

Mr. Dolan got together with other volunteers to examine Middleton's Enlightenment past in the 18th and early 19th Centuries. Middleton is fortunate in its local architecture especially some of its Churches.

Besides the botanist, George Caley (1770-1829) the film examines the life of local hero Samuel Bamford (1788-1972), poet, writer, and social campaigner who took part in what became known as the Peterloo Massacre in August 1919.

The public's imagination was stired by Shelley's Mask of Anarchy poem about the Massacre.

LABOUR leader Ed Miliband, the House of Commons' Speaker, John Bercow, the Deputy Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, John Prescott, shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham and shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, all attended the funeral service at Salford Cathedral of Jim Dobbin, the MP for Heywood and Middleton, last weekend. There was no sign however of the Labour MP for the neighbouring constituency of Rochdale Simon Danczuk, who was said to be on holiday.

Jim Dobbin, whose constituency includes Castleton, Norden and Bamford as well as Heywood and Middleton, had been in the Commons since 1997. He died aged 73 on a Council of Europe trip to Slupsk in Poland at the beginning on this month.

Andy Burnham, Labour's shadow Health Secretary said of Jim Dobbin that he had 'always pledged to do more to protect the NHS'.

The by-election for Mr. Dobbin's constituency seat will take place on October 9th.

Wednesday, 24 September 2014

WHEN soon after Jim Dobbin, MP for Heywood and Middleton, died in Poland the Labour Party made an early announcement of the date of the by-election, Ukip accused them of running scared. Yesterday Jennifer Williams of the Manchester Evening News tweeted that:'One Labour source said to me earlier re anti-politics Ukip vote: 'Middleton don't even like Rochdale. Why would they like Westminster?'

Down South they wouldn't understand that places like Middleton and Heywood on the south and west side of Rochdale have clear and distinct identities of their own: in Middleton the people are known as the Moonrakers suggesting a taste for booze; Heywood is nick-named Monkey Town because they are supposed to have holes in their stools to accomodate their tails.

Last week, Nigel Farage sent out a carefully crafted letter to constituents argueing that the people up North and the working-class had been betrayed by the Labour Party.

Now Michael Crick is asking:'Is Labour in serious trouble in the north west seat of Heywood and Middleton, where the party faces a by-election on 9 October?'

Reports in the Rochdale Observer suggest that things were not smooth in the run up the selection of Liz McInnes as the candidate for Labour in the constituency. Liz McInnes is a councillor in Rossendale, works as a healthcare scientist and is a Unite union rep.

However, while Rochdale councillor Karen Danczuk originally tweeted her dissatisfaction that 'not one local person has been short listed for Midd & Heywood', she has now retracted her comment to give support to the 'fab local candidate' Liz McInnes.

November 2014 is the TUC Young Workers Month. We are asking union branches and trades union councils to focus on taking out the message to the community that there is a place for young people in the union movement and that the place for young workers is in the Union. A highlight of the month is the Big TUC Youth Debate to be held at Congress House on 15 November and we are asking you to bring this to the attention of your affiliated unions and your local community. A leaflet advertising the event is attached and here is the link to the TUC page giving lots more information on young people and unionswww.tuc.org.uk/about-tuc/young-workers .

Tom Mellish

TUCJCC Secretary

Trades Union Congress

Congress House

Great Russell Street

London WC1B 3LS

Text from TUC Leaflet on young people:

WE BELIEVE YOUNG PEOPLE
HAVE A RIGHT TO EXPECT
A DECENT JOB
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
A VOICE IN THE WORKPLACE AND SOCIETY

The TUC believes that halfway through the second decade of the 21st Century a decent job, access to quality housing and a voice and representation at work, and beyond, are things that young people are entitled to expect rather than just hope for.Current government policies on jobs and housing are failing young people. We are concerned about the crisis of representation of young people both at work and in the wider political debate. Turnout at the 2010 general election amongst 18- to 24-year-olds was just 43 per cent and less than 1 in 10 of workers aged 16–24 are members of a union.At the BIG TUC YOUTH DEBATE on 15 November the TUC, supported by NUS, will be discussing progressive and radical solutions to these issues. We’ll be bringing together young people, experts and campaigners (and some who are all three!) to discuss JOBS, HOMES and VOICE.

Reply to Brian Bamford, Bury Branch Secretary for Unite, from Councillor Mike Connolly, Leader of Bury MBC, who writes:'Mr Bamford is not correct in all of his assumptions.

'This is not a recent instruction. It has always been the case that waste operatives should not take side waste left by the grey bins. This message is also consistent on literature that is sent out to residents and information that is on the web-site.

'We are asking operatives to take cardboard side waste or occasional blue bin waste that is left by the side of green bins and only when it is safe to do so.

'The crews are requested to use their judgement when collecting bins that have the lids slightly raised, and only when safe to do so. The information that is provided to the public is that bin lids should be closed. (which also reduces the risk of odours, vermin and flies).

'It has always been the case that the operatives use their judgement not to take bins which are too heavy. In such cases the bin will be stickered to explain why the bin has been left. The crews also receive support from the recycling awareness and enforcement team

'Waste management has a team of recycling and enforcement officers who support the waste operatives on a daily basis. Side waste, heavy bins and fly tipping can be reported through the on-board computer which is then followed up by visits to households to provide help and advice to residents.

'The back up service provided by the recycling and enforcement team is also to be enhanced by providing each crew with a direct contact to a support offices for improved communication and follow up.

'There is no evidence to suggest that there should be an increase in side waste or fly tipping (which is the case in Falkirk). What we are asking residents to do is place all recyclable materials in the blue, green or brown bins.

'Therefore the grey bin should only contain the lighter materials such as food containers, yogurt pots and plastic bags. The heavier materials such as food waste should be in the brown bin (which will stay at 2 weekly collection) and blue bin materials such as glass (which will increase to 3 weekly collection)

The Council is already aware of areas where there may be a higher risk of fly tipping such as some of the back streets. These are currently being tackled jointly between waste management, cleansing and Environmental Health

'In terms of over full grey bins, where households are recycling everything they can and there is a genuine need for extra space e.g. larger families, an application can be made for an extra grey bin. Extra green and blue bins can also be provided free of charge.

'The Council is fully committed to supporting its in-house workforce. The new waste management system is about increasing recycling and making sure that the right stuff goes in the right bin. A 10% increase in recycling could save going on for £1 million per year and help protect other services.

'I am sure Mr Bamford as representative for Unite the Union is aware that the aim of the new system is to achieve efficiency savings through increased recycling and not a cut to the existing workforce. No jobs will be lost in the waste service as a result of these changes.'

Questions for the full Council Meeting of Bury MBC relevant to the proposed change to three weekly collections of Grey Bins:

Given that in anticipation of what Bury MBC may regard as 'teething problems' in relation to the proposed change to the collection of 'grey waste', Waste Management has recently issued an instruction for bin operatives:

1 i)Not to collect side-waste left beside bins.

2 ii)To only to remove bins with raised lids if if it is deemed safe to do so at the discretion of the operative.

3 iii)To only remove over-weight bins at the discretion of the operative.

The question then arises as to who will remove the 'side-waste' and bins that are left stranded in the streets?

If the answer in the case of 'side-waste' is that the 'side-waste'left behind will be removed later by other operatives from the Streets Cleansing Department, doesn't this mean that the whole procedure is simply a conjuring trick that is transferring the collection of the waste from one department (Waste Removal) to another (Street Cleansing)? Thus, the cost of removal of the waste is merely shifted from one department to another by a bureaucratic slight-of-hand.

Please will you also enlighten me as to what happens regarding the over-weight bins and those with raised bin lids, and as how this represents a saving?

LAST
night, at a Labour Party Conference fringe meeting on 'Making the media an election issue' in Manchester the Chairman of the NUJ, Chis Rea, jokingly introduced the editor of
Northern Voices Brian Bamford, who was asking a question, as the proprietor of a local publication:

'I'm from Rochdale and I edit a small
publication called Northern Voices,which in November
2012 was involved together with the Westminster blogger, Paul Waugh and the
Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk, in the outing of Cyril Smith.A lot has been published recently about historic
child sexual exploitation, but in the case of Cyril Smith last April, the Daily
Mail serialised some stories by the Rochdale MP, Mr. Danczuk about the sexual
abuse of some young boys by Cyril Smith:The story then became one in which Simon and the Daily Mail had outed
Sir Cyril Smith.

'This was twaddle!As long ago as May 1979, another small
journal – the Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) – ran a report in which they
presented the case of six lads at Cambridge House Rochdale in the 1960s, who
had been spanked and had suffered false medicals.These lads all made sworn statements, under
oath before a solicitor, that they had been abused by Cyril Smith.

'Now the troubling thing about this is that
none of the main-stream national media at the time followed up this story in
1979.Other that is than Private
Eye!The reason being that Cyril Smith
took out an injunction – what the solicitors call a gagging measure.How would more new laws or the greater media
diversity proposed by the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom help
here, when, it seems, the mainstream media is so spineless?'

Granville Williams CPBF: 'This is an important question.I knew the people at RAP and had a lot of
respect for them, but though the case of RAP and Cyril Smith was important it
was not the only case at that time in 1979 (the Campaign for Press & Broadcasting
Freedom was ironically founded in 1979).There were many other cases around that time.The problem relates to the libel laws in this country, and the need for
and the difficulties of corroboration.'

Had I then had the courage to ask a further question, I would have raised the worry of Private Eye that 'Hack-off' and Leveson were potentially leading the way to less press freedom, and may yet, through a passion for more legistlation and regulation, pose a danger to small publications like Northern Voices and even larger ones like Private Eye.

Monday, 22 September 2014

Manchester’s Royal
Exchange Theatre is to throw open its doors to the public at a free Open Day as part of the national FUN PALACES weekend at the beginning of
October.

The Royal Exchange event – which takes place on Sunday 5 October from 11am
to 5pm – offers visitors the chance to get behind
the scenes of a working theatre. It will also include Family Friendly activities, workshops for all ages,
the chance to dress up in the Theatre's costumes and free entertainment in the
Great Hall.

Backstage
tours will also allow people to reach the parts of the Royal Exchange
normally hidden away behind doors marked ‘staff only’ and discover the secrets
of the theatre’s sound, lighting and wardrobe departments.

On the same weekend, venues across the UK will be
hosting FUN PALACES * events - bringing together arts and
sciences, children and adults.

* In 1961, Joan Littlewood and architect Cedric
Price conceived the Fun Palace as a ‘laboratory of fun’,
‘a university of the streets’. It was to be a temporary and moveable home to
the arts and sciences that would welcome children and adults alike, based on
Joan Littlewood’s motto of “Everyone an artist, everyone a scientist.”

OVER wild Scottish venison and fine French red Burgundy on one day in
February 2012, David Cameron set out his strategy for defeating a Scottish
independence referendum.In May 2011,
the Scottish Nationalists had won a massive victory on a promise of a
secessionist vote, and its party leader, Alex Salmond, was keen to carry this through.

Mr Cameron was in a
dilemma: if he chose to dismiss the demand he would be accused of
ignoring the popular will of the Scottish people, alternatively he could take a
chance and let the referendum happen.

In the end he backed
the latter choice, and huddled in the Peat Inn near the University town of St.
Andrews in Scotland Cameron told his advisers that Mr. Salmond would have his
referendum.Crucially though, he would
refuse to allow the other Salmond demand for the softer option of more autonomy
(later labelled devo-max) to appear on the ballot paper.He was going to call Mr. Salmond's bluff, and
there was going to be the single question:Should Scotland stay inside the United Kingdom, or leave it forever?

According to what one
person at that Michelin-starred diner said afterwards, the Prime Minister
claimed 'it would put the issue to bed.'

It was a gamble, but
it was a gamble that has now had unforeseen consequences.

Because on the eve of
the referendum last weekit looked like
Scotland could vote for independence the three Westminster main-stream part
leaders made promises they will now be expected to keep.Thus the goalposts were moved at the last
moment!

Meaning:If the Scots voted for independence, it would
end a 300-year-old union and possible, David Cameron would lose his job, but if
they voted against, he would none-the-less have to give them more autonomy,
with the peril of what the International New York Times calls 'potentially cascading implications, for
the rest of Britain.'

This unforeseen
consequence, which could have serious implications for the Labour Party as well
as the Tories, makes AlexSalmond now
look like a Scottish giant among Westminster's political pygmies.

Saturday, 20 September 2014

LAST night, the poet Mike Rosen opened an exhibition entitled 'Political furniture, NOT a comfy sofa' on behalf of the artist Jeff Perks at the Stockport Art Gallery on Wellington Road. Jeff has said: 'The work will be called anti-political' and 'It is, and it's against all those men who too quickly rush to solve the problems of our nuclear world by military action.'

Mike Rosen told us that he and Jeff first met at the National Film & Television School, and that they both worked for the BBC. They had later collaborated on a film about the Shrewsbury pickets; afterwards I asked Mr. Rosen if he knew Mick Abbott, one of the pickets who died this year, as he had told us that he himself had been on the MI5 files. Jeff Perks had been in the Communist Party at one time. We naturally discussed the recent cases of the blacklisted electricians, the Consulting Association, and the Blacklist Support Group.

Mr Perks, who lives in Derbyshire has agreed to do an interview with the printed version of Northern Voices, used the quote that 'It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its Government.' This could well be an anarchist quote, but Jeff describes himself as a 'socialist artist'.

The Exhibition takes place from Saturday the 20th, September to Thursday the 30th, October at the Stockport Art Gallery, Wellington Road, Stockport, Cheshire SK3 8AB.

RESPONDING to the vote in the Scottish independence referendum, which saw the people of Scotland vote by approximately 55 per cent to 45 per cent to stay in the United Kingdom, Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite the union said:

"The people of Scotland have decided. In voting No, the Scottish people have declared that they regard the bonds of union as having a continued purpose in their lives. “However, this is absolutely not a vote for the status quo. Solemn promises of further devolution have been made by the three main Westminster parties; there must be no reneging on those commitments made to the Scottish people.

“The vibrancy of this referendum campaign has been breath-taking and can be much admired by the rest of these islands. This will live on in history as a time when political life of our people was reborn. Energetic, inspirational grassroots movements reminded us that politics can be meaningful once more, that it lives on the streets and communities of the people, not in the Westminster chamber or the trading floors of capital. And when the true change is on offer the people are engaged and will grasp the opportunity to shape their destiny.

“Politics, as the Scottish campaign has shown, must always be about possibilities, about the faith that the common good can triumph. The debates and discussions that have resounded through the halls, homes and workplaces of Scotland speak to a people enthused, alive with optimism for a brighter tomorrow. This gives us all hope, and for that we must thank the Scottish people.

“Unite has stood shoulder to shoulder with our members throughout this journey. Our role was always to offer support them in their deliberations, never to tell them how to vote. Be they yes or no supporters, our members have told us that we have done the right thing.

“We stand again with them as they take the next steps towards greater self-governance. In building this new future, Unite will work tirelessly to ensure our movement's values of respect, equity and fairness, our determination to ensure a better life for working people and their communities, prevail.

“There can be no returning to business as usual after today. The Westminster parties of all hues have witnessed a seismic shift in the political culture of these isles, one that must surely hasten the day we can say goodbye to the ruinous political consensus of the past forty years which has not served our people.

“My message to the Labour Party is this: time and again you have been warned that the people want change, genuine change. Please listen, understand these calls and heed them.

“This is not the time for recriminations but one for open, profound and deep reflection. Today's vote must be the catalyst our party needs to renew itself and to do so with wisdom and courage. I urge the party of which I am a lifelong member, do not respond to this vote with relief but with the honest understanding that our party has to re-tether itself to the people, to again become the crusade for social justice it once was.”

Friday, 19 September 2014

IN a letter in last Saturday's Rochdale Observer Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk, was accused of holding up the inquiry into what happened at Knowl View Residential School in the 1980s and 90s. Les May, a Rochdale resident, wrote to remind readers 'that had it not been for two interventions of Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk we would already have known a lot more about what happened at Knowl View School' with regard to the allegations of sexual abuse.

Mr May claimed that an early 'inquiry was abandoned after the publication in April of "Smile for the Camera" which Mr Danczuk co-authored.' He wrote:'in this book Mr Danczuk conflated two quite separate issues, the report into the health issues surrounding homosexual activities between the boys at the school, and the question of whether Cyril Smith continued the sort of activities he had been involved in at Cambridge House and which had already been revealed by Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) in 1979.'

After this book's publication a second inquiry was started with more scopeand to report at the end of July.

Yet again, this second inquiry was halted when Danczuk introduced the so-called Dicken's 'dossier' after a Parliamentary Select Committee Inquiry into historic child sexual exploitation in early July this year.

The problem is that these delays benefit the political pundits who want to seek continuous publicity for themselves; it benefits the Home Secretary and the government to have the results of the investigations placed beyond the next General Election; and the delays produced by 'overarching inquiries' help to provide journalists and newspapers with constant copy: the people who suffer from all this are the victims who never seem to get closure.

GREATER Manchester Police claim they are focusing on 30 suspects and have interviewed over a hundred people in the course of an inquiry into yet another potential grooming scandal in Rochdale and beyond. This follows on from the jailing of nine men in 2012 for the sexual abuse and exploitation of at least five young girls in the Rochdale and Heywood areas.

The police have said that this time the suspects have not been 'acting in concert' as 'a homogenious group'.

Besides the Rochdale area this alleged abuse is said to have been carried out in other parts of Greater Manchester. These new revelations of grooming in the North West come on the heels of the recent exposure in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, of the abuse of 1,400 girls over a 16 years period.

Roughly a quarter of Greater Manchester's most senior detectives in the major incident teams are examining sex cases dating back to the 1960s. This includes allegations about the Rochdale MP, Cyril Smith, first published in the Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) in May 1979, to more recent cases of alleged grooming gangs and abuse in local care homes in the Greater Manchester area.

Following the outing of Jimmy Savile in 2012, Northern Voices helped to finally unmask Cyril Smith by supplying evidence to the local Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk. He then included this material in his speech in the House of Commons on the 13th, November 2012.

In the past in has been claimed that there are rings or gangs of sexual abusers operating in the North West, this time the police have said that there is no 'homogenious group acting in concert'.

Posters have been used in every general election of the 20th century. In the run up to the general election 2015, curators, campaigners and designers will explore the significance of the poster to the past, current and future British political debate.

Topics will include the history of posters, design as activism, the management and manipulation of billboards, subversions and internet spoofs and the influence of new media on how political posters are conceived and deployed.

Confirmed speakers include Jeremy Sinclair, founder of Saatchi & Saatchi and creator of many of the Conservative Party’s most famous adverts, and Peter Kennard, Senior Research Reader in Photography, Art and the Public Domain at the Royal College of Art, best known for the images he created for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in the 1970s-80s.

Come and debate posters at this exciting event at the People’s History Museum.

People’s History Museum is a national museum telling the story of the development of democracy in Britain - ‘there have always been ideas worth fighting for’. The museum is based in Spinningfields in Manchester city centre. The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) is one of the museum’s main funders.

For further information, images and interviews, please contactKaren Moore or Daisy Nicholson at People’s History Museum on 0161 838 9190 or karen.moore@phm.org.uk / daisy.nicholson@phm.org.uk

No Glory in War- ManchesterWorld War I Day SchoolSaturday 15th November 2014, 10.30am-4.30pmManchester Metropolitan University
This day school will develop a creative and inclusive space for activists, researchers and anyone else interested to explore different narratives of WW1, share our knowledge, views and ideas, take part in debate, and plan events for the next four years.

We will create a timeline of events, individual stories and family reminiscences during the day which we will use to stimulate planning activity to create a timeline for activism 2014- 2018.
Professor Karen Hunt, Keele University, will speak about Food and Austerity, workshops include research on conscientious objectors and other WW1 themes, building an anti-war movement today, making handbills – lessons from the past, and ways of getting our messages across. There will be space to discuss these and other topics you are interested in and to express your artistic side by contributing to the No Glory in War Manchester banner we will be making through the day.

THIS year’s Peace History Lecture will take place on Saturday 20th September 2014 with the guest speaker Dr John Westmoreland, Head of History at York College.

As a counter to the ‘glorious war’ jingoism the theme of the Peace History Lecture will be ‘No Glory in War: Noble Cause or Capitalist Adventure?’
Venue: Friends Meeting House. 6 Mount Street, Manchester,M2 5NS.

Wednesday, 17 September 2014

The
problem of idée fixe in the politics
of the Left

LATE
last year, Paul Salveson, a Labour councillor for Golcar, a
constituency near Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, submitted an article for a
forthcoming printed issue of Northern Voices in which he argued
that whatever the result of the Scottish referendum this September, that
there would be far reaching constitutional consequences and that things would never be the
same after that.Yesterday, a leader
writer in an editorial in the Yorkshire Post echoed these
sentiments:

'Whether or not Scotland opts for independence on Thursday, the one
certainty is that the governance of Britain will be changed forever by the
result.'

The issue, as Mr. Salveson foresaw it, is that while a Yes
vote may cause confusion, constitutional disarray and the break up the United
Kingdom; a success for the No lobby will still bring in a range of devolved
powers (labelled Devo-Max) and possible demands for further referendums.

In last
Saturday's FT the economist, Martin Wolf, described the prospects in the following terms:

'If
the vote is a Yes, it will be forever.But what about a narrow No (vote)?That too would be a nightmare.We
could then look forward to more referendums.'

Even as I write this I understand that the West
Yorkshire Combined Authority, and the Leeds City Region Local Enterprise
Partnership (LEP), are proposing to develop proposals to put to the Chancellor
George Osborne before his Autumn Statement in December, in which he has already
promised to have thew northern economy at its heart, and Deputy Prime Minister
Nick Clegglaunched his
'Northern Futures' project in Leeds in July, calling for ideas on
creating an 'economic hub' in the
North.

The editor of the Yorkshire Post goes much further in
the leader yesterday:

'The new mood for a move to a more federal Britain certainly shames the
pitiful power-sharing efforts made so far by Westminster...This must now change.With a population and an economy of similar
size to those of Scotland, there is no logical reason why Yorkshire should be
denied far greater powers of its own.'

The problem in Britain is that it is a nation state
whose power has been for so long centred upon London, and that its people don't
have a great understanding of federalism.Its English culture, even on the Left among the radicals and so-called
revolutionaries, is one of 'Utilitarian liberalism' in which
seemingly everyone wants to protect his or her pension, career, dole, or other
perks and benefits provided by the centralised state.Thus, the British Left is instinctively
centralist, including paradoxically many who describe themselves as
anarchists.In Europe, especially in
France and Spain the reaction to the reality of the centralism imposed by both
the French Revolution with its destruction of local interests and privileges,
and the Spanish Liberal Revolution, was inspired by the anarchist Proudhon.In France, Proudhon believed that the French
Revolution had come into existence to fulfil the notion of greater local and
municipal liberty, but had been diverted in this task by the ruthless political
actions of the Jacobins.In Spain,
federalism wasrescued by a Catalan, Pi
y Margall, who had read Proudhon, and saw how the Frenchman's ideas would suit the
regional aspirations of the Spanish people.

Pi y Margall wrote:'Every man who has power over another
is a tyrant.' And the Englishman,
Gerald Brenan, writing about Py y Margall says:

'Discussing
the meaning of “order” – that word which for more than a hundred years had
been the excuse for every act of violence and injustice – he (Margall) says that true order
cannot be obtained by applying force.'

Given that Pi y Margall's federalism in Spain evolved
and developed into a form of Spanish anarchism, it is surprising in England
that the current tiny tribe of anarchists have not had much to say about the issue
of Scottish independence and regional devolution.It is something that I would have thought
their more distinguished predecessors at Freedom Press such as Colin Ward and
Nicholas Walter, would have had much to say.Instead today, it is left to the main stream parties and the likes of
Paul Salveson (who someone from the anarchist
federation, recently described as a 'Labour
Party hack') to wrestle with the issues of federalism and Scottish
independence.The problem with much of the
English left, including the anarchist faction, is that it suffers from a form
ofidée fixe* that serves to cut it off
from real life situations.

* idée fixe,( French: “fixed idea”) in music and literature, a recurring theme or character trait that serves as the structural foundation of a work. The term was later used in psychology to refer to an irrational obsession that so dominates an individual’s thoughts as to determine his or her actions.